Surprises are always fun and Stern Pinball certainly has been pulling out more of them in recent times. Today’s surprise is a new retro themed pinball machine that they have developed in conjunction with beer brewing company Pabst – the Pabst Can Crusher pinball machine (fair warning to any younger readers & parents – this is an adult themed machine):
According to the press release, this machine is debuting next week at the San Diego Comic Con and Pabst will be taking the tables to other events. The release does not mention availability for those that might wish to get their hands on one but if you are really interested in it, I’m sure any authorized Stern Pinball distributor will be able to get one for you. My guess is that it will retail for the same as their other retro-make machine, Whoa Nellie! (around $6000). In fact, this is just a reskin/retheme of the Whoa Nellie machine, I’ve included a playfield shot of that below so you can compare:
As with Whoa Nellie!, this will no doubt cause some hand-wringing and pearl clutching on Twitter from users who never took a few minutes to look up pinball machines from the 1960s and 70s. There were some loud, uninformed complaints I read when Nellie came along but whether or not a theme appeals to you personally, they have every right to make machines that they think will sell and both companies do know their markets. I would have zero reason or interest in one of these for my arcade but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is opened up for sale that it will find its way to a few bar/arcades out there, who wouldn’t mind such a theme.
If you are interested in reading more, the press release can be found here on Facebook.
The people who are complaining are NOT important. Don’t get caught up with the social justice/politically correct audience.
Whoa Nellie was pretty much made entirely for the collector’s market, so I don’t see why anyone would complain about it. Either it’s your bag, or it isn’t. It’s funny I like this commercial rebranding for Pabst better than the original Whoa Nellie it was based on. Never thought that would happen.
Oh, there’s some pinball orgs, one in particular out of Canada, that gets their mind out of whack because of stuff like that. I find it more amusing than anything although Twitter isn’t exactly known for protecting your opinion in the event that you decide to engage or mock them over their pearl clutching stupidity.
The coolest part about it is that apparently “Red Fang” are providing the soundtrack 🙂